


Saviour

by whos_li



Category: Castle Swimmer (Webcomic)
Genre: Castle Swimmer AU, Child Abuse, Kappa must kill Siren, M/M, Original prophecy, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, References to Depression, Self-Harm, Siren is an angry and angsty teen, Susca is a bad parent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-01-04 12:21:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21197579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whos_li/pseuds/whos_li
Summary: "Prince Siren of the Castle of the Sharks, you must be killed by the Beacon."or, the prophecy was never changed by Susca, and Siren was destined to die.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It started as a simple head cannon, but before i knew it i was writing out a plot.
> 
> I really should finish my other fics before starting a new one lmao

"_Prince Siren of the Castle of the Sharks, you must be killed by the Beacon._" It wasn't as shocking as it sounded, really. Siren already knew that, so did all of the other sharks. It was in their prophecy, after all. So, when his mother—Queen Susca—said it again, Siren had long been habituated to his death and rolled his eyes in response.

"According to the prophecy," the Queen continued, eyes closed as she recited the prophecy from memory, "the Beacon will slay the Prince with a spear, and the curse that plagued our people will be broken." Selkie—a respected elder of the Sharks—swam by her side, smiling as the Queen spoke of their future success. She too had her eyes closed, most likely daydreaming about the future after his death. Again, not really shocking. "The Prince’s blood will flow through our castle and bring all our suffering to an end. Thus, the Beacon will be forever known as the Shark’s saviour."

Finally, Queen Susca opened her eyes. "As it is written by our ancestors, it is the Prince’s... destiny... to..." She trailed off, her unimpressed gaze reaching him. "Siren, lounging on our ancestor’s statue is not very _prince-like_."

Siren sat on the shoulder of a semi-eroded stone statue, arms crossed and blue tail flowing softly beside him. "Is it really necessary to repeat this?" he asked, looking at the Queen from the corner of his eyes. "Don’t we all know it by heart at this point?"

"Repeating the prophecy is crucial!" she exclaimed, hands beginning to shake in frustration. "Otherwise it will be forgotten with time. Besides, Elder Selkie _senses_ the Beacon’s presence," she spoke smugly, nudging the Elder with her elbow.

"Oh, yes!" Selkie said startled, snapping out of her thoughts. "Yes! I can feel it in the way the bubbles move! It’s a sign of the Beacon’s arrival!" She waved her arms frantically, fingers clenched in excitement. Muttering to herself with a dazed look, she said, "So mysterious are these bubbles. Why do they speak?"

Siren simply closed his eyes and lolled his head, trying to remain uninterested. "Are the bubbles going to help kill me?" he said darkly. He didn't have to open his eyes to know his mother was glaring holes through him. That feeling, he could sense from a mile away.

"Must you act so blasé?" she began, swimming closer to him with her arms crossed behind her back. "You are _not_ being murdered, Siren, you're sacrificing yourself for the good of our lineage," the Queen explained, unaffected by the fact that her only son was to be killed.

"Right, _sacrifice_, that's what you're calling it these days," Siren muttered, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. He was not quiet enough, however, as Susca was quick to dash next to him, almost growling in his ear. 

"Many sharks have died in order to protect our people, Siren. Will their deaths be in vain?" Siren hated himself for freezing up when she came close, but he couldn't control himself. He couldn't meet her eyes, knowing the venom they held behind the horrific red scars, which covered almost half of her face. Those were his fault. Everyone's scars were his fault. If only he were dead.

"No," he croaked out in a whisper, his nails digging into the palms of his hands. He knew he sounded pitiful, like a pup after being chastised, but he couldn't trust himself to say more.

"Good," the Queen drawled, swimming away slowly. She had her back turned to him as she continued talking. "Besides, you _must_ die. You exist to fulfil our prophecy and no more." 

"But that’s not fair." Sirens voice cracked as he pulled his tail in, wrapping his arms around it to hide his shivering frame.

Queen Susca didn't hesitate to respond, unaffected by the state of her son. "It’s the only way to break the curse. Fairness doesn't apply." She turned her head to look over her shoulder, briefly meeting the light blue eyes her and Siren shared. "It’s either _us_ or _you_."

"It’s okay to be scared, Prince Pup." Selkie spoke, suddenly clenching her hand on Siren's shoulder. "Selkie is here to comfort you."

"I’m not scared!" He fell backwards, instinctively jumping away from the touch. "Leave me alone!" he shouted, tail shielding his body defensively. 

"Siren," Queen Susca began in a tone of anger, her eyes sharp as spears. "I don’t appreciate your ungrateful attitude as of late."

"What difference does it make?" Siren retorted, regaining some confidence with the distance between him and his mother growing. "The bubbles say I'll be dead soon anyway."

A guard with a scar down the centre of his face sped up towards the three, his eyes wide, clearly in shock. "My Queen!" he shouted, trying to gain her attention.

"Not just this—" she began, ignorant of the voice calling out to her.

"Queen Susca!"

"But you still skip meals and block yourself in your quarters!" It almost sounded like she cared for a moment there.

"Your highness, the—"

"Imagine if you starved to death, you would truly be useless to us then." There it was. "And another thing—"

"My Queen, the Beacon is here!" the guard shouted. That caught the attention of everyone. Both Susca and Selkie's eyes went wide, mouths dropped open slightly as they stared at the guard in shock. However, Siren felt the fear rush through him, eyebrows furrowed, mouth agape and body trembling uncontrollably. Siren was glad he was sitting down—he knew he wouldn't be able to keep himself up if he'd been swimming. It was like time had frozen for a moment, as Siren knew his time was coming to an end. Of course, he'd known of this moment for his entire life, but knowing his life would truly end today was a feeling he couldn't prepare for.

"Bubbles I tell ya." Selkie quipped, her expression unchanging. Her statement broke the silence that swam around them, prompting the guard to speak.

"He swam right up to the front gate!" the guard informed the Queen, trying to retain his composure despite his excitement. "His scales are literally shining! It’s incredible!"

"And you’re sure it’s really the Beacon?"

"No doubt! He’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen!"

"Understood." The Queen nodded with a straight face. "Please escort Siren to the dungeon." She didn't even look back at him before swimming off with the guard to welcome his murderer.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kappa gets a warm welcome

Kappa had been swimming mindlessly through the sea, allowing the currents to direct his movements when he came to a stop in front of a large rock structure. There was an opening between two slanted pieces of stone, tall and dark. Kappa tried to peek through, but it was impossible to see beyond the passage. He inched closer, immediately regretting his decision to do so when he felt a tightening in his chest, followed by a strong tug. The tugging sensation pulled him into the cave automatically, and Kappa gave in to it, allowing what he knew to be the catalyst to direct him to his next prophecy.

When Kappa was deep in the cave, he found himself staring in awe at the sight of a new colony he wasn't accustomed to seeing. Hundreds of jellyfish swam scattered around the castle, seeming to glow a light blue, illuminating the area around them. Their glow complimented the light emitted from the castle itself, which was inside multiple stalactites, each as tall as a whale is long. 

The catalyst drew him towards a large stone arch guarded by spear-wielding mers in armour. Kappa took a deep breath in before coming to a stop in front of them. 

"Hi," he said softly, his hands clasped in front of him. The guards all turned their heads in unison, and their mouths dropped. 

"Oh my god."

"No way."

"Is that—" they muttered over each other, spears lowering in shock.

"Well, I'm the Beacon," Kappa began, gesturing towards himself. "So, uh, what's your prophecy?"

One of the guards swam forward, his face in awe. "It's an honour to meet you, Beacon." The guard bowed his head, and the others followed in suit. Kappa hovered awkwardly, glancing to the side as the mers expressed their gratitude. "Please give us a moment to find our Queen so she can explain to you our prophecy." Kappa nodded silently as a different guard swam off inside the castle.

The group hovered in awkward silence, giving Kappa a moment to look around. He couldn't see much of the castle from the gate, just a big open courtyard with openings in the wall, presumably leading to different parts of the castle. However, the stone which the castle was built from didn't seem to be in good shape. The walls were littered with cracks and gaping holes, and the mers were no better. Every single one of them was covered in scars, fresh and old. A pup swam past and even she had scars.

Kappa couldn't imagine what caused it, but he had a feeling he would be the one prophesied to end it.

Moments later, the guard returned with a tall woman with sharp features wearing a metal crown, with two thick scars across her face. She bowed her head and spoke; "Beacon, welcome." When she stood, her face held a joyful expression. "I'm so glad you've come to fulfil our prophecy. Please, follow me."

Kappa swam after her as she turned and swam into the castle. "I am Queen Susca of the Castle of the Sharks. I hope you don't mind, but I've called for a ceremony right away. The prophecy will be explained then."

Kappa only nodded in response, knowing he would have no say anyway. Queens Susca led him to an area taller than wide, with statues of what Kappa could only assume to be past Queens carved into the stone walls. In the centre of the statues, high on the wall near the top of the castle, was a painted image of a figure holding a spear towards another. He didn't understand it completely, but the feeling he got from it was not a good one.

"Everyone, gather round!" A guard beckoned other sharks towards the image on the wall, where they crowded around Queens Susca and Kappa. Another older shark joined by the Queen's side, leaning forward to look at Kappa. 

"You can call me Selkie," she said with a slight rasp in her tone. Kappa pressed his lips into a smile and nodded once before looking back to the crowd. They all stared at him in awe as if he was something special, but Kappa never felt like it. They looked at him like he was an all-powerful being, like the God of the Surface, but they were wrong. Kappa couldn't even use magic. The prophecies he'd completed in the past didn't even seem like miracles to him, they were more like coincidences. 

"Does the Beacon know his role, Susca?" Selkie asked with her arms behind her back. 

"Not yet. We have no time, however, he will hear it during my speech." They talked as if he weren't there. And he wished that he wasn't either. "Not that it matters. The prophecy will be fulfiled regardless."

"Let's begin," the Queen stated. The guards gained the attention of the crowd in response. Just before they were about to start the ceremony, a guard with a scar down from his cheek to his neck stood in front of Kappa.

"Beacon," he started. He held out a long metal staff in his hands, looking different to the weapons he saw the guards earlier use. "The ceremonial spear." Kappa nodded and pressed his lips together tightly into a sort of smile, fiddling with his hands in front of him. The guard looked at Kappa expectingly. "Uh... You're supposed to take it," he whispered. 

"Oh! Of course, sorry." Kappa blushed in embarrassment, taking the spear from the guard before realising he had no idea how to hold it. The weapon was also much heavier than he expected, making Kappa sink a bit. He flailed with the spear in his arms, almost dropping it, before finally adjusting it to be stable. The spear balanced on an angle in the crooks of his arms as he hugged the rod to his chest.

"Thank you all for gathering so quickly," the Queen spoke, side-eyeing Kappa after his clumsy mistake. "We lost two more people to the curse last month. Sift and Saline were both killed by falling rocks while patrolling our castle." Kappa's eyes went wide at this, and he stared at the Shark Queen in shock. "Sift had recently become a father, and Saline was due to be married the following week." Kappa felt for the community. Although he didn't know what it felt like to lose a family member, he did know how it felt to be alone. 

"We were cursed one hundred years ago when a Shark Queen killed the Minigod known as Neris," Susca continued. "Neris attacked the Queen's Castle unprovoked, so she cut a deathly mark down his body with her spear. As Neris bled to death, he spoke his final words.

'You will regret killing me. My blood is a poison that will curse you forever. Your people will be a target for tragedy and despair. Their bodies will become a collection of wounds and scars until there is nothing left.

Feel my hatred,

and _suffer_.' "

Kappa couldn't help but shiver at the malice in the Queen's tone. Looking out at the crowd of sharks, covered in scars, cuts and bruises, he could almost understand her anger.

"Since then, our population has dropped from twenty thousand to just a few hundred. No matter where we moved, or what precautions we took, the curse remained." Queen Susca closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. "However... The sharks before us documented a prophecy." Kappa perked up. "One where the beacon would purify our castle and finally end our suffering... using the blood of our unscarred sacrifice, the prince."

Kappa gasped, the spear almost slipping from his grasp. "What?" he questioned, swimming up to the Queen. "I've never killed anyone!" As the crowd was filled with murmurs of confusion at his outburst, the Queen gave him a harsh look which sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. 

"You are the Beacon, and you _will_," she ordered in a harsh whisper. Kappa averted his gaze. As much as he didn't want to listen to her, he knew there was no other way. He was not physically able to refuse a prophecy.

The Queen continued. "As you can see, the Beacon has arrived at our castle. Today is the day we have all been waiting for. In a moment, our saviour will be leaving to complete his role in the prophecy." Kappa's bottom lip wobbled as she spoke. 

Already? he thought. 

"From now on, we will live long, peaceful lives. No more scars. No more fear. Just the same calm existence as any other castle." The Queen held her head up high. "In honour of everyone we've lost, let's put this curse to an end," she finished, holding her hand up high. It wasn't long before the crowd had joined in on her excitement.

"Break the curse!" one boy exclaimed.

"No more scars!"

"Finally!"

"End it!"

_"Kill the sacrifice!"_


End file.
